Onondaga County settles with blind inmate who says he was unfairly segregated in jail

A blind man from East Syracuse who says jail officials separated him from other inmates at the Jamesville Correctional Facility has reached a settlement agreement with Onondaga County.

County officials agreed to pay Tayon Wallace’s attorney’s fees and house him with the general inmate population at Jamesville. Wallace, 42, is serving a 12-weekend sentence at the Onondaga County jail for stealing nearly $1,500 in goods from the Cicero Walmart, according to court records.

Wallace filed a lawsuit in August claiming the county was discriminating against him by automatically placing him in a “special housing unit" where he was only permitted one hour of recreation per day. The unit is typically reserved for inmates with mental health conditions or behavioral issues, he wrote in his lawsuit. Wallace said he also had less access to the dining hall and had been denied other privileges given to inmates.

Wallace lost his eyesight in a shooting 19 years ago, according to the lawsuit.

He began serving his weekend sentence on July 26, and was immediately taken to the restrictive housing unit, the lawsuit said. When he asked to be housed in the general population unit the following weekend, he was told inmates with serious medical conditions were held in the restrictive units, the lawsuit said. When he refused to go to restrictive housing after that, he was written up, the lawsuit said.

Wallace’s lawyers at Legal Services of Central New York also tried to intervene by sending a letter to Jamesville Commissioner William Bleyle, but their request for Wallace to be moved was denied, the lawsuit said.

Within a week of the lawsuit being filed, the parties indicated they believed they could reach a settlement.

This month, U.S. District Court Senior Judge Frederick Scullin approved a settlement agreement. The county agreed to place Wallace in general population housing, or the same housing used for non-disabled inmates serving weekends. The county agreed to other “accommodations” for Wallace, such as allowing him to use a cane, and providing him access to the bottom bunk in cells with bunk beds.

The county also agreed to pay $9,530 in attorneys’ fees to Legal Services of Central New York, which represented Wallace.